Monday, December 16, 2013

Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, and medical miracles

By Anabelle Hazard

Anabelle and her dad, swinging at Anabelle's wedding.

Of course, bad things happen to good people. My innocent 14
month old nephew was run over by an SUV in a library parking lot in Orange
County. Though there was a medic or a
nurse (can’t remember now) on the site who helped administer first aid, he was
rushed to the ER trauma unit and the doctors’ prognosis was that due to severe head injury,
he had “less than 1% chance of survival.”

Everyone in the circle of family and friends poured in for help and
support. Those who visited the hospital
prayed the rosary constantly with my cousin, the toddler’s mother. It so happened that they wound up in a
hospital that had just gotten word about a nurse who’d just invented a brain
catheter for children. Since it had just
gotten approved, my nephew was the first patient to use it. The catheter would eventually save his
life. My nephew is a healthy, soccer
playing, trophy-winning, 14 year-old today.

Of her experience, my cousin has said, “God used that less
than 1% chance of survival and turned it into a miracle.”

In mid October, my dad suffered a mild stroke. He was diagnosed with aneurysm. In layman’s
terms, a couple of huge balloons lodged in inconvenient positions by his heart. Several local doctors refused to perform surgery and others floated a risky open-heart surgery as the solution.

At about this time, the earth trembled with a
7.4 magnitude earthquake, which damaged the hospital wing, prompting doctor-friends
to advise my dad to fly to Manila for other options. My
sister (a physician) scouted around for the nth medical opinion by
seeking a cardiologist outside the hospital OR. God-incidentaly, another
physician (lounging at the sides) overheard the consultation and
recommended a surgeon in Manila who specialized in a more modern, less invasive procedure of
grafting instead of the open-heart surgery.